Separated by U.S. Highway 82 and located a mere hundred feet or so from the edge of the Mississippi State University campus, lies one of the most technologically advanced research centers in the state of Mississippi. Mississippi Research and Technology Park houses numerous research facilities and technology companies. The research park lies just beyond eyesight of U.S. Highway 82’s passersby, nestled amongst a landscape of trees and small hills.
Audrey Scales, park manager, said that there is good reason for the quiet location.
“We like to keep a low-profile park–one that allows the numerous researchers and company employees the much-needed privacy required to do their jobs,” Scales said. “So much in the field of technological research is being done here. It is mind-boggling what the professors, researchers and company employees are finding and creating.”
The park employs approximately 1,000 people, a number about to increase with the addition of other companies.
“We did computational fluid dynamic study on the Titan rocket for NASA,” Joshua Jackson, an industrial technician major who worked in the Engineering Research Center, said. “We checked different angles of attack and different pressures along the outer surface.”
Jackson said that the level of professionalism expected of him and others was very high.
“At the ERC, many important research activities are taking place, and the utmost level of professionalism is expected of each and every employee,” he said.
Along with the ERC, the research park is also home to the Mississippi Technology Center, Tennessee Valley Authority, ServiceZone and the MSU Diagnostic Instrumentation and Analysis Laboratory.
The Social Sciences Research Center is one of about 15 tenants that occupy the building. The SSRC, celebrating its 50th anniversary this past year, does some of the foremost social sciences research in the South.
Ruth Haug, an SSRC administrator, explained that the center is currently working on rural health issues, such as the Mississippi Alcohol Safety Education Program, which deals with first time DUI offenders and numerous other research topics.
“The SSRC is not a medical center,” Haug said. “Here at the center, our eclectic group of professors and researchers are searching for the causes or reasons that factor into the various problems here in Mississippi. One such study delves into the reasons for the poor health status of rural Mississippi.”
ServiceZone is a recent addition to the park. It acts as a major support center for a computer manufacturer and currently employees about 400 people, with the capacity to employ up to 600.
Phase III of the 220-acre park is set to begin soon with the addition of Viking Range. Its builder will be the architectural-great Richard Meyer, who built the famous Getty Center in Los Angeles.
Contrary to popular belief, the park is not owned by Mississippi State University but by the Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority.